Stone Soup
by BusySoothsayer
Summary: When a kingdom starts to suffer from hunger- a mystery man shows up and says that he has just the thing to feed them all.


A/N: I had originally planned on posting this for Thanksgiving Day (U.S.A.) but with the winter storms and power outages; snowball fighting was bumped up to the top of the 'important things to do' list.

Stone Soup

Camelot was in desperate times. The winter had been harsh and it stayed until the beginning of June. It caused the late planting of the crops. When the summer finally came; it was hotter and dryer than normal. Now that it was time for the fall harvest; there were limited crops to be harvested.

The king declared an emergency and started to seize all of the harvested crops. The citizens were left with the barest minimum and poorest quality of their crops. Many did not have enough for seed next year.

The Crown Prince of Camelot, Prince Arthur was in the throne room arguing with his father, King Uther Pendragon. They were arguing about the people going hungry. Arthur wanted Uther to allow the peasants to hunt in the King's forest. Uther denied that request saying that the peasants would hunt all of the prime animals and leave the nobles poor quality.

"Father," Arthur protested. "The people are going to starve. If we had not taken the best part of their crops then many wouldn't be that bad off. Our stores were filled enough not to have taken from the needy."

"Arthur, the nobles pay a hefty fee and taxes to hunt in the forests. How do you think that letting these…_peasants_ hunt the forest empty will go over with the nobles?" Uther stated with the bored voice of a parent telling a simpleton child to put his coat on. "We need the harvest to make sure that the army is well fed in case we need to defend Camelot."

"Defend Camelot from whom?" Arthur argued. "If our people starve to death, there won't be a Camelot to defend."

"Arthur, you know as well as I do that these people whine about everything." Uther would not budge in this argument. "For all the whining of things that they don't have, they still seem to thrive on _nothing_. So some of these people like to spin a sorry tale; they think it will give them more than they actually need."

A knight came into the room and asked for an audience with the king. He told them about a peasant who said that he could feed the whole lower town. He brought with him a large cauldron; like the ones high priestesses used before the Purge.

"Sire," the knight said, "he has a stone and said that he could feed the entire village with it."

"Sorcery!?" the king shouted. "Arthur, take some knights and go and arrest this man."

"Father!" Arthur protested. He could see that his father could not be persuaded out of his decisions so Arthur gave him a bow and left the throne room. On his way to the lower town he gathered a few knights just so his father would not get angry.

Meanwhile, in the lower town, there was a young man in a dark green cloak with the hood covering his head and part of his face talking to a small group of people gathering around him. He held his left hand up high and showed them the stone he was holding. He spoke in a loud clear voice so the people who were further from him could hear his deep voice.

"People of Camelot," He called out. "With this stone, I can help feed your people."

"What is this sorcery?" called Prince Arthur. He came into the lower town and seen that a crowd was gathering around a young man with a large cauldron-type cooking pot that took up a fair amount of room in one of the merchant stalls. "We will not allow our citizens to be robbed of their livelihood by thieves with false promises."

"That would be the King, then?" the impudent man said with a small chuckle.

In a flash Prince Arthur had his sword at the man's throat. "Those are words of treason, Peasant."

"Your king takes the best of their crops and leaves nothing for them. Many do not have seeds for next year's planting." The young man stood strong and was defiant against the prince.

He was speaking boldly in a way that made the prince listen. Arthur looked the man over carefully and realized that he had seen him before, not too long ago. They were in the forest close to the Kingdom of Mercia and there was smoke in the distance and when Arthur and his knights traveled closer to it; the smoke took on the shape of two sparring stallions. Arthur thought that it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. For about three seconds; then he remembered that it was probably sorcery and he had to put a stop to it. He went over to the sorcerer with the intentions of an immediate execution. When he was in front of the sorcerer, Arthur had a good look at his face and only seen a child-like joy in creating something so beautiful. There was absolutely nothing evil about this man. So Arthur made a judgment call and let him go.

"Sorcery is not permitted in Camelot." He told the young man. "I will let you live but you must leave and do not show your face in Camelot again."

"Thank you, Sire." The young man had a small smile on his face when he bowed to the prince-almost mockingly. "Although, I should warn you that you passed over the Mercian border about ten minutes ago." He laughingly turned around in the opposite direction of the prince and began to walk deeper in the Mercian forest.

Arthur forced himself back into the present and began speaking to the defiant young man. "I thought I told you not come to Camelot. Keeping the armies well fed helps keep Camelot safe from attacks and invaders."

"That old argument? Keeping the citizens well fed and happy makes them want to stay in Camelot and not want to rebel." The sorcerer was still smiling.

"_Are_ you trying to start a rebellion…?" Arthur asked in a bored voice.

"Merlin." The sorcerer said. "And no, I am only stating that healthy people will be more willing to help out when they are not starving and dying." Their conversation was broken up when someone in the distance asked about the big cauldron.

Arthur took this opportunity to turn to his head knight, "Leon, I want you to go back to the castle and inform the king that we are not dealing with a sorcerer but a traveling merchant." Leon bowed and left Arthur with Merlin and the gathering crowd.

Merlin raised his hand and showed the people a large river stone. "What I have here is a stone. A stone that will help feed you." There were many questioning shouts and some that could be considered very rude. Merlin just smiled at the people and gave a small laugh, "We are all going to contribute something. Even the smallest item will help feed the town. My contribution will be the stone; added last so the whole meal comes together."

"What do we contribute?"

"Whatever you can contribute." Merlin replied. "Wood for fire to cook with, water, something to stir…"

"I have a broken wagon that cannot be repaired." a man in the crowds said, "I can give that wood for the fire to cook with."

"That's the spirit!" an excited Merlin shouted. "Anything will help."

"I have several large buckets and can help bring water," said another man.

Merlin had a huge smile on his face now as he nodded. Many in the crowd went with the man to help haul water in his buckets. As they returned with the water and dumped it into the cauldron; more people called out the various things they could provide. Someone brought carrots, another brought turnips, someone else brought potatoes and so on.

Merlin silently enchanted the wood under the cauldron so the wood would keep on burning for several hours, maybe days. The cauldron was filled to the top with an assortment of vegetables; whatever the people could provide. Sometime later a young woman with dark skin and younger dark-skinned man came up to Merlin. Each was carrying a very long ladle.

"Hello, I'm Guinevere, but most people call me Gwen. This is my brother Elyan; our father is a blacksmith and made these ladles long ago. I know it's not much but it is all we can contribute…" she said to Merlin.

Merlin interrupted her, "This is wonderful. We need something to stir and serve with. Now if anyone has any bowls…" Many people said they could provide them and left.

"Hello, Guinevere." Arthur said. She gave him a shy smile and said hello back.

For the first time Arthur really looked at the people of Camelot. These people had almost nothing and still gave all they could. Arthur could not see any nobles walking through the lower town; those that could afford to give anything and not miss it. This really was an eye opener for the young prince. These were the people that he would lead in the future. They helped each other and looked after one another when the times became hard. Now it was Arthur's turn to show just what kind of king he would be. He was not Uther and would eventually change many laws; but for now he just needed to show his people he could identify with their plight.

Arthur looked at Merlin and took a small pouch off from his belt. "Here," he said tossing the pouch to the sorcerer. "Consider this my contribution to your…cause." At Merlin's quizzical look Arthur said, "Just some spices that we knights carry on us and use for cooking when we are out hunting or away from any town for a while."

Merlin gave him a big bright smile. He added the spices to the cauldron and Elyan stirred them in. Lastly, very quietly so no one could see or hear, Merlin enchanted the rock so that the soup in the cauldron never ran out and there was always enough to feed anyone that needed to eat. He then tossed the stone into the soup and helped Elyan stir it.

A long while later after everyone that wanted to eat was served, Merlin gestured to Arthur to approach the cauldron. "Come on, Arthur, have a bowl. Show the people you not above sharing their meager meal with them."

Arthur, realizing that the stone was just a prop to get the people to come together, grabbed the small bowl from Merlin. "What about you? Aren't you going to eat?" The food wasn't half bad. He was not going to throw his nobility and previous snobbish behavior in their faces. This experience taught Arthur a lesson; these people had very little but helped each other and fed each other by sharing what little they had. Too bad the nobles forgot about empathy for the people they ruled.

"Oh I'm not really hungry." Arthur scoffed at that. "Hey! Do I look like I'm missing any meals?"

"YES!" Arthur argued.

Merlin extended his hand to Arthur and Arthur shook it. "It was nice to see you again, Arthur. You have shown yourself to be a compassionate man and you will become a great ruler one day."

"Where are you going?" Arthur couldn't believe any peasant could be so bold and talk to him like he was an…equal.

Merlin turned to look at Arthur again, "There is another town just over the border in another kingdom that could do with the same kind of help." Merlin reached down to the ground and picked up another stone and spun it in front of his eyes. He gave Arthur a smug smile and put the rock in his pocket. "We'll see each other again, Arthur. We have a destiny together."

"What?" A bewildered Arthur looked on as Merlin turn and walked out of city whistling a small, happy tune.


End file.
